Project: Dehydrator

When I was a kid, my dad made a dehydrator for my mom.  No, not one of those cute little plastic things that goes on your counter, it was a humongous plywood box on wheels.  It measured somewhere in the neighborhood of 2' x 2' x 4' long, with a door on the end and 5 or 6 wood-framed screen trays inside.  It was powered by an ordinary space heater that pushed the warm scent of drying bananas, apples, pears, plums, and herbs throughout the house.

Here in Cochabamba, we have a ton of fruit, when it's in season.  We can get tons of bananas all year (we make lots of smoothies), and typically have oranges and papayas as well.  Seasonal fruits are: apples, peaches, plums, grapes, watermelons, etc.

So, in order to use up more bananas (I love dried bananas) and to preserve fruit so we can enjoy it out of season, I decided to modify my dad's design and made a dehydrator for my wife for Christmas.

I started with a plain wood box that I bought in the Cancha (our huge, open-air market).  I've been told that they are mostly used by the military as foot lockers.

Because my box was pre-made, I couldn't dado in slots for the trays (like my dad did), so I made cleats.  The trays are made of screen nailed and siliconed to wood frames.  Other than the box, all of the wood is scrap that I had laying around.

I had to rip down the boards I had, so I made a table saw for this project:

I used my Dremel with the circle cutter attachment to cut two holes in the lid, where I mounted two 6" computer fans.

To keep little fingers and bugs out, I put a piece of screen (with silicone) over the holes and covered it with vinyl, left over from the Pony Project.

I used a spade bit to drill ventilation/outlet holes in the top of the box and covered them with screen as well.

I modified a variable-output AC-DC converter, removing the pins and soldering the supply wire directly into the board, through the holes in the case.

This was then connected to the fans and mounted in the box.

Because the "lid" was now a "door," I had to upgrade the hinges and mount the handle on the (new) top.

Did I mention that most of this took place on the Dec 24th, in between coats of polyurethane on the Christmas Ponies?  It was done in time to go under the tree!

The only thing it lacked was heat.  I wanted to try it out without, so I gave it a rack of bananas, but it took a couple days to dry them out.  So I was thinking about heating options and my brother suggested a light bulb.  So I added a 100W bulb, and bananas finish in less than 12 hours.  It glows in the dark nicely, too.